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dazerl@lemmy.worldBanned to Work Reform@lemmy.world · 8 days ago

Alabama is forcing incarcerated people to work at hundreds of companies, including McDonald’s & Wendy’s. Unionizing is illegal. The state takes 40% of wages.

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Alabama is forcing incarcerated people to work at hundreds of companies, including McDonald’s & Wendy’s. Unionizing is illegal. The state takes 40% of wages.

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dazerl@lemmy.worldBanned to Work Reform@lemmy.world · 8 days ago
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  • teslekova@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    The formerly enslaved people willing to speak out and use their names on camera for this doco are incredibly brave. They are going to be targeted for this, and they know it. The system does not want to stop making money, and it will do anything to protect the cashflow.

  • Komodo Rodeo@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Found this bad boi a while back and applied personal boycotts. Assume that it’s still accurate after five years but haven’t found an updated version. Prison labour is slave labour by another name.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    3/5ths…

    • kylie_kraft@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      holy shit yikes

      • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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        8 days ago

        If this was fiction I’d be complaining about how on-the-nose it was.

        • Deacon@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          I find myself saying words to this effect more and more, and more and more lately

    • kureta@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      Holy shit! The ratio is really 3/5! wtf!?

      • Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip
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        8 days ago

        deleted by creator

    • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      jfc

    • pfr@piefed.social
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      3 days ago

      Sorry for my ignorance, but can someone please explain 3/5ths to me like I’m 5

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        https://youtu.be/YSWwWdAw-h8

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-fifths_Compromise

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Sin_(disambiguation)

        I tried to pay attention but they classes wasn’t interestin They seemed to only glorify the europeans Claimin africans were only three-fifths a human being

  • Jack@slrpnk.net
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    8 days ago

    And how is that different from slavery?

    • Laurel Raven@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      8 days ago

      It isn’t, this is how they get around it, and literally wrote into the amendment banning slavery to leave a carve out for prisoners

      • West_of_West@piefed.social
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        8 days ago

        Could also explain why prisons are such a big industry in the US

        • Sineljora@sh.itjust.works
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          8 days ago

          All of our 401ks invest in it.

        • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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          8 days ago

          also to put them in perpetually low wage jobs, where they cant complain, much like they do with Immigrants. and to live them socioeconomically disadvantaged for generations with no way to lift them out of.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      They get a whole 3/5 of their wages!

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        I see what you did there

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      8 days ago

      it is slavery with extra steps, and to say its “not like slavery”

  • gustofwind@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The constitution makes slavery legal for prisoners

    Says so right there literally just read the 13th amendment

    • FaceDeer@fedia.io
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      8 days ago

      Had a whole civil war over it and still didn’t get rid of slavery.

      • Optional@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        The amendment to abolish slavery enshrines it in the Constitution

      • gustofwind@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Yeah lmao this is the amendment making slavery illegal….exceptaspunishmentforacrime

        Tho I guess in fairness involuntary labor for prisoners is not really like slavery of innocent people but that’s why we have a corrupt criminal justice system to make up the difference 😃

        • bagsy@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Black americans have the highest rate of incarceration for this exact reason. Racist cops, lawyers, and judges get to lock up black people and make them slaves.

        • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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          8 days ago

          Slavery, Part Deux: OOPS! ALL CRIMINALS!

      • RobotToaster@mander.xyz
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        8 days ago

        “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it” - Lincoln

        • potoooooooo ✅️@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

  • bagsy@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Slavery is illegal except for prisoners. Forcing prisoners to work is perfectly constitutional.

    The bill of rights is wrong and must be admended. Closing this loop hole will kill the for profit prison industrial complex.

    • Flames5123@sh.itjust.works
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      7 days ago

      Btw, the bill of rights is only the first 10 amendments. The 13th is just an amendment.

    • LemmyBruceLeeMarvin@lemmy.ml
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      8 days ago

      The only thing Capitalists love more than wage theft is slavery

    • Etterra@discuss.online
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      8 days ago

      It’s been that way since the end of the civil war.

    • NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      It won’t kill the for profit prisons, this is just an aspect of how for profit prisons make profit.

      They should ban for profit prisons outright.

    • Meron35@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      More like bill of wrongs amirite

  • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Unionizing is NEVER illegal. Source: The thousands upon thousands of people that have died over the years for your right to organize.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      And besides, what’re they gonna do, put them in prison?

      • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 days ago

        The video gets into this a bit; what the workers are threatened with for not working is stuff like being put in a more dangerous environment and not being able to see their families.

        • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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          8 days ago

          Sounds cruel and unusual

          • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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            8 days ago

            Definitely cruel but not at all unusual. And as SCOTUS has determined, a punishment has to be both cruel and unusual to be unconstitutional.

      • frostysauce@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        lol, right?

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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      8 days ago

      Lol. For prisoners; you wanna bet?

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      8 days ago

      for prisoners? pretty sure they cant unionize, and they wont be able to.

  • BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    Yeah the USA is a slave empire, they have to be stopped.

  • ceoofanarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 days ago

    America never ended slavery.

  • cranakis@reddthat.com
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    8 days ago

    This is an all over problem but Alabama and Louisiana are so bad I avoid even driving through.

    • ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Alabama is bad but Louisiana is an absolute shithole state with crooks in the gov. Full of poverty when those should be very rich people. Too bad they didn’t make the oil companies pay taxes for all that oil they drill or spill in the gulf every day.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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      Man, you are letting Mississippi off the hook here. I used to live in Louisiana but spent a lot of time working in Mississippi and I could not say which state is worse. The only good things about either one are the winter weather and the crawfish.

      • Flames5123@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        As a Mississippi refugee, Mississippi is worse. We don’t even have a fun city like New Orleans. I do miss the food though. Crawfish in the PNW are so tiny.

  • MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Slavery.

  • frustrated_phagocytosis@fedia.io
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    8 days ago

    If they’re capable of working at these jobs, they don’t need to be in prison. Either release them or stop using a system that garnishes their wages.

  • Felis_Rex@lemmy.zip
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    7 days ago

    Y’all really ain’t ready for the slavery in the US agriculture sector conversation. It’s really bad, and this ICE shit is just acceleration

    • Xanthrax@lemmy.world
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      But those are my Mexicans

    • criscodisco@lemmy.world
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      Or why they have decimated public education in black communities.

      • OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works
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        And just in general. Black communities were definitely hit hardest and first, but the damage isn’t solely contained there.

        • andros_rex@lemmy.world
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          The Right essentially decided to destroy public education in response to desegregation.

          The district I worked for was excellent in the 50’s and 60’s. Now, the only high school that isn’t a failure is the application school all the white kids get into.

  • MousePotatoDoesStuff@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    The more I learn about the US, the more I realise the shining city on the hill I believed in as a child is actually a giant dumpster fire.

    • PhoenixDog@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      It’s like Trump being what poor people envision as rich.

      America is what other countries view as prosperous, when in reality it’s just 10 rich people in a trench coat, and 350 million suffering underneath.

  • MrSulu@lemmy.ml
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    8 days ago

    Slavery never went away. It’s just been rebranded, repackaged and sanitized.

    • deHaga@feddit.uk
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      Not American, but isn’t that what the 13th amendment did? Make slave labour legal for prisons?

      • BussyGyatt@feddit.org
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        6 days ago

        and fugitive slave patrols became police

      • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
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        the crazy thing about this story (aside from the slavery) is that the voters of Alabama voted to outlaw that exception at the state level but ever since then, their governor has overidden that effort.

      • Anakin-Marc Zaeger@lemmy.world
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        As a foreigner, you probably know more about the US Constitution than most US citizens. And I’m saying that as a natural born US citizen.

      • chicagohuman@lemmy.zip
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        Yep!

        Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

        Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Work Reform@lemmy.world

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A place to discuss positive changes that can make work more equitable, and to vent about current practices. We are NOT against work; we just want the fruits of our labor to be recognized better.

Our Philosophies:

  • All workers must be paid a living wage for their labor.
  • Income inequality is the main cause of lower living standards.
  • Workers must join together and fight back for what is rightfully theirs.
  • We must not be divided and conquered. Workers gain the most when they focus on unifying issues.

Our Goals

  • Higher wages for underpaid workers.
  • Better worker representation, including but not limited to unions.
  • Better and fewer working hours.
  • Stimulating a massive wave of worker organizing in the United States and beyond.
  • Organizing and supporting political causes and campaigns that put workers first.
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